John Coolidge Adams
' John Coolidge Adams' (born February 15, 1947) is an American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986), On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003), and Shaker Loops (1978), a minimalist four-movement work for strings. His operas include Nixon in China (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, and Doctor Atomic (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb. The Death of Klinghoffer is an opera for which he wrote the music, based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of wheelchair-bound 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The opera has drawn controversy, including allegations by some (including Klinghoffer's two daughters) that the opera is antisemitic and glorifies terrorism. The work's creators and others have disputed these criticisms. Tossup Questions # In one of this composer's operas, the second act begins with the "Hagar Chorus"; that opera by this non-Satie composer includes the "Aria of the Falling Body (Gymnopédie)." Another opera by this composer begins with the chorus "We believed that matter can be neither created nor destroyed but only altered in form." In Act II of another of his operas, the title character and his wife watch the ballet The Red Detachment of Women; after the ballet, a coloratura soprano angrily shrieks "I am the wife of Mao Tse-Tung" at the title character. For 10 points, name this American composer of The Death of Klinghoffer, Doctor Atomic, and Nixon in China. # This composer wrote a work with movements titled "Concord," "The Lake," and "The Mountain," the inaccurately titled My Father Knew Charles Ives. He wrote an unusually quiet fanfare for two offstage trumpets. Another composition by this composer contains the movements "Meister Eckhardt and Quackie" and "The Anfortas Wound," and takes its title from a book by Schoenberg. Another fanfare by this composer begins with a wood block marking the beat. This composer of Tromba Lontana and Harmonielehre wrote a "memory space" beginning with the repeated word "missing." That work, commissioned after the 9/11 attacks, is On the Transmigration of Souls. For 10 points, name this minimalist composer of Short Ride in a Fast Machine and operas like Nixon in China. # One of this composer's symphonies extracts the "panic" and "military matters" music from one of his operas. His self-described "opus one" is a piano piece which shifts through various keys, alternating between the Lydian and namesake modes. A commission from the Great Woods Festival resulted in a fanfare by this man which opens with a pulsing (*) woodblock ostinato that is soon joined by four trumpets. Another of his works is a "memory space" featuring a children's chorus and recorded readings of victims' names. This composer of Phrygian Gates and Short Ride in a Fast Machine also created the 9/11 memorial On The Transmigration of Souls. For 10 points, name this American minimalist composer of Doctor Atomic. # This composer included the tracks "Cerulean," "Disappointment Lake," and "Tourist Song" on his album Hoodoo Zephyr. Jorja Fleezanis premiered this composer's violin concerto, which climaxes with a furious "Toccare." A piano piece by this composer begins with a long A Lydian section followed by a short A Phrygian section and then continues to alternate Lydian and Phrygian modes around the circle of fifths. Another work by this composer opens with a pre-recorded tape of a cityscape before a young boy repeats the word "missing." His Two Fanfares for Orchestra include a piece driven by a constant woodblock ostinato, as well as Tromba Lontana. This composer of Phrygian Gates and Short Ride in a Fast Machine paid tribute to the victims of 9/11 in On the Transmigration of Souls. For 10 points, name this minimalist American composer of the operas Doctor Atomic and Nixon in China. # This composer's violin concerto has three movements, the second of which is subtitled "Body Through Which the Dream Flows." One piece by this composer is subtitled "Fanfare for Great Woods" and features a constant woodblock beat. This composer of Short Ride in a Fast Machine composed a piece commissioned to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The best known work of this composer of On the Transmigration of Souls is the origin of his Chairman Dances and portrays a president who visits Mao Zedong. For 10 points, identify this American minimalist composer who composed Nixon in China.